The Wager

pickpockets, sailors, and prostitutes. Periodically, a boatswain blew a chilling whistle, and crewmen stumbled from ale shops, parting from old or new sweethearts, hurrying to their departing ships in order to avoid their officers lashes.

It was January 1740, and the British Empire was racing to mobilize for war against its imperial rival Spain. And in a move that had suddenly raised Cheap s prospects, the captain under whom he served on the Centurion, George Anson, had been plucked by the Admiralty to be a commodore and lead the squadron of five warships against the Spanish. The promotion was unexpected. As the son of an obscure country squire, Anson did not wield the level of patronage, the grease or interest, as it was more politely called that propelled many officers up the pole, along with their men. Anson, then forty-two, had joined the Navy at the age of fourteen, and served for nearly three decades without leading a major military campaign or snaring a lucrative prize.

Tall, with a long face and a high forehead, he had a remoteness about him. His blue eyes were inscrutable, and outside the company of a few trusted friends he rarely opened his mouth. One statesman, after meeting with him, noted, Anson, as usual, said little. Anson corresponded even more sparingly, as if he doubted the ability of words to convey what he saw or felt. He loved reading little, and writing, or dictating his own letters less, and that seeming negligence . . . drew upon him the ill will of many, a relative wrote. A diplomat later quipped that Anson was so unknowing about the world that he d been round it, but never in it.

Nevertheless, the Admiralty had recognized in Anson what Cheap had also seen in him in the two years since he d joined the Centurion s crew: a formidable seaman. Anson had a mas

is also interested in the way these events were recorded and then recounted, with many different people trying to shape the memory of what happened. Grann simultaneously reconstructs history while telling a tale that is as propulsive and adventure-filled as any potboiler.
The Atlantic

"A genre-defying literary naval-history thriller, part Master and Commander, part Lord of the Flies" Vanity Fair

"One of our finest nonfiction storytellers returns with a swashbuckling epic about shipwreck, scandal, mutiny, and murder" Esquire

A thrilling account dramatic and engrossing. The Economist

This astonishing tale of maritime warfare, mutiny and survival in the 18th-century Atlantic proves that a nonfiction book can be as thrilling as any summer blockbuster.
 People

"The Wager" is a soaring literary accomplishment and seductive adventure tale enthralling, seamlessly crafted The Wager then, is an accomplishment as vividly realized and ingeniously constructed as Grann's previous work, on par with Jon Krakauer's Into Thin Air and Sebastian Junger's The Perfect Storm. Welcome a classic.  
Minneapolis Star Tribune

Gripping Combining impeccable research with exceptional storytelling powers, [Grann] spirits the reader aboard a creaking wooden ship trapped at the eye of a howling storm No book that you re likely to read either this year or next will prove more dramatic and enthralling than Grann s magnificent story of life both at sea and out on the desolate, mist-laden island whose solitary peak the Wager s unfortunate crew aptly named Mount Misery Financial Times

A masterclass in story-telling With a series of twists and turns worthy of a well-plotted thriller, the author of Killers of the Flower Moon, uncovers an epic sea-faring tale Epic true story as told by a master David Grann has produced this riveting book with the artistry of a superb novelist. The Toronto Star

[Grann s] meticulously researched stories, with their spare, simmering setups that almost always deliver stunning payoffs, have made him one of the preeminent adventure and true-crime writers working today [Grann] has mastered a streamlined, propulsive type of narrative that readers devour for its hide-and-seek reveals David s stuff reads like literature, but every detail, every quote, every seemingly implausible glimpse into a subject s mind is accounted for
New York Magazine
 
Your favorite writer s favorite writer for decades David Grann is poised to become the moment s leading storyteller... [Grann] specializes in gripping historical chronicles and crime stories so rich in intrigue that they would strain credulity in fiction [Grann s] become one of our culture s leading sources of holy s**t page-turners. GQ
 
David Grann is one of the premier nonfiction storytellers of our time Grann s masterful new book is at once an adventure on the high seas, a horror story, and a courtroom drama a little bit Rashomon meets Lord of the Flies. Rolling Stone

Not just a good but a great story, fraught with duplicity, terror and occasional heroism the story of the Wager is, like many of its antecedents from Homer s Odyssey to Mutiny on the Bounty a testament to the depths of human depravity and the heights of human endurance, and you can t ask for better than that from a story...The Wager will keep you in its grip to its head-scratching, improbable end. Los Angeles Times